Guitar.



Patented lune la, |901.

w. wv. oAKEs. GUITAR.

(Application filed Aug. B, 1.900.)

(No Model.)

714k AHORA/EY UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. I

WILLIAM W. OAKES, OF SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-THIRD` TO PAUL IIENNING, OF SAME PLACE.

GUITAR.

SPECIFICATION folm'lg loa-N @f Letteis Patent N0. 676,470, dated. June 18,- i901'.

Application tiled August 6, 1900. Serial No. 26,091. (No model.)

To @ZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM W. OAKES, a citizen of theUnited States,residing at Seattle, in the county of King and State of Washington, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Guitars, of Which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to guitars; and the ro object of my invention is to provide a guitar having a better quality of tone and giving a larger amount of sound; and it consists in the novel form and construction of the instrumentbody and the sound conductors, together I5 With the arrangement of the neck and the arching of the top and back, all as hereinafter described, and pointed out in the claims.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, in which similar letters indicate correspondzo ing parts in all the views, Figure l is a longitudinal section of the guitar on the line com in Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a plan or face View, part of top being broken to show sound-conductors; and Fig. 3 is a transverse section on line g] fy in Fig. l.

Ct and b indicate, respectively, the top and bottom portions of the body and which are each hand-carved from a single piece of wood of an arched or convex-curved section slop- 4 3o ing in all directions to the Walls to improve their resiliency and also provide strength sufiicient to dispense with the use of cross-braces,

necessarily required with the present flat faces and taking therefrom much of their vi- 3 5 bratory efficiency.

c and d are sound-conductors of an ap-` proximate semi-elliptic or bow form with their ends resting upon and secured to the cornerfillets c and crowns f, bearing` against and 4o acting as supports to the opposite faces of the guitar.

I incline the neck g so, that the linger-board h thereof Will slope sufficiently to be parallel with strings t', thereby equaliz'ing the dis- 4tances between the strings and said fingerboard the entire length of the latter, so that the strings upon being pressed down to the several frets'will not oversharp the notes, and also making it possible to accurately tune the 5o instrument with open strings and keep it in tune under all manipulation of the musi- Vquiring the use of metal in the head l and also to facilitate the yoperations of tuning-'and permanency of adjustment, I use wooden pegs m and provide an intermediate longitudinal .partition n to supply additional bearings therefor. f

, It will be apparent that in my guitar Iam not limited to the use of a bridge of any particular height, and under certain conditions` 7o a higher or lower elevation of strings may be used to advantage by substituting a different bridge.

The principal advantages of my guitar are, first, the arching of the top and bottom to dispense With the use of all cross-braces having a tendency to deaden vibration; second, the improved sound-conductors, notably the one c positioned beneath the bridge, replacing a reinforcing-piece which covered so 8e large an area as to muflle those delicate intonations attained by myinstrument through the non-interference of the synchronous vibrations of top and bottom and still having suflicient rigidity to assist in supporting the 85. body, and, third, the sloping of the neck for the purposes before enumerated.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is- '9o 1. In a guitar, or similar musical instrument, the combination with an arched top, an arched bottom and a neck inclined from a line `parallel to the longitudinal axis of the instrument-body, of bow-shaped transversely-arranged sound-conductors, substantially as described.

2. A guitar, or similar musical instrument, having an arched top, an arched bottom, bowshaped transverselyarranged soundconductors, a neck inclined from a line parallei to the longitudinal axis of the instrument- IOO body, and a head to said neck with a central longitudinal partition therein, substantially as set forth. l

8. A guitar, or similar musical instrument, having an arched top, an l arched bottom, bow f shaped transversely arranged soundconductors, a neck inclined from a line parallel to the longitudinal axis of the instrumentbody, a head'to said neck with a central 1ongitudinal partition therein for the receptionv of peg ends, and said pegs, substantially as set forth. 4. A guitar, or similar-musical instrument, having an arched top, an arched bottom, boW- shaped transverselyarranged soundconductors, a neck vinclined from a line parallol to the longitudinal axis of the instrumentbody, a head to said neck with a central longitudinal partit-ion therein for the reception of peg ends, said pegs, and removable bridge, substantially as set forth. p y f 5. The combination with a guitar with body having arched ltop and bottom portions, of a soundconductor or a plurality-of sound-conductors of approximately semi-elliptic form arranged transversely to thev bodyl of instrument and adapted to support said top or bottom portions upon the crown or crowns of said'sound conductor or conductors and a neck inclining to an angle With the longitudinal axis of the instrument, 'substantially-as described. y

6. The combination with aguilar with a body having arched top and bottom portions, .of a sound-conductor or a plurality of sound- WILLIAM W. oAKEs. VtneSSeS:

PIERRE BARNES, ERNEST E. GILMER. 

